West Side's "Deadly" Interest in Joe Massino

Shortly before the third shooting war began, Colombo leaders including Carmine Sessa met at the Persico family estate in Saugerties, New York, to plot the murder of Vittorio "Little Vic" Orena.

Chin Gigante

When the other crime families learned of the pending war, leaders of the Luchese, Genovese and Gambino families tried to resolve the problem before the shooting began by meeting with Colombo leaders. (Notice one family is missing?)

Alfonso "Little Al" D'Arco, former acting boss of the Luchese family, discussed this series of meetings meant to stop the third Colombo war at Orena's trial. The talks only postponed the shooting, which formally broke out in late 1991.

D'Arco said the four-family meetings had been held in apartments and hotel rooms around New York City.

The Bonanno family was excluded because "the Genovese family was deadly against them."

We became aware of the tension between the Genovese and Bonanno family while working on a story. So our surprise was not as great as it likely would have been when a source recently told us something that we'd never heard or read anywhere before.

Vincent "The Chin" Gigante wanted Joe Massino whacked and asked Paul Castellano, then Gambino boss, if Roy DeMeo could carry it out, meaning Gigante most likely wanted Massino to disappear without a trace like the Murder Machine's countless other victims.

Castellano turned Gigante down, for reasons unknown.

Dominick Montiglio, former Gambino crime family associate and nephew of Anthony "Nino" Gaggi, a onetime powerful and respected captain in the Gambino family, recently told us this while we were preparing a followup to a previous story,

Based on the chronology of events, it would seem that this would have meant that Gigante wanted Massino out of the way so the "Sonny Red" faction of the Bonannos could've held sway rather than being slaughtered in the basement of a Gambino-run nightclub in the early 1980s, a few years after the Commission-sanctioned (or was it?) slaying of Carmine "Lilo" Galante.

As for the Three Captain Slaying, a Bonanno source gave us interesting insight.

When Massino went to the Commission to complain about the Sonny Red faction, he'd initially not been given the permission he'd wanted to consolidate power under boss Rusty Rastelli.

He was later told he and his men could take up arms but only after Massino had information that Sonny Red was arming himself.

A Bonanno associate had inadvertently seen Sonny Red out in public and noticed he'd had a gun stuffed inside his infamous red leather boot, according to our source. It was this sighting of the gun in the boot that allowed the Massino/Rastelli faction to win the day.

Sonny Red Indelicato, Phil Lucky Giaccone, and Big Trin Trinchera only agreed to meet with Massino after they were convinced they were going to a full Commission meeting, we also were told.

That's why they went unarmed (along with Frank Lino, who inadvertently put himself in harm's way by taking Bruno Indelicato's place), even leaving their cars parked at a diner to be driven to the meeting's undisclosed location by Gambino family members as part of the ruse that it was a Commission meeting.

"They never would've gone like that unless they were positively convinced it was a Commission meeting," our source said. "You did what the Commission said, or else."

(Interesting note, sports fans: there is a particular way to pronounce "Lilo," we've learned from a former Bonanno family member (inducted in the 1970s) who was well acquainted with the fierce Galante. One way we can tell if a source is "for real," for example, is listening to how they pronounce the man's nickname.... if they don't say it the right way, we know what we're dealing with.)

It's no secret that there were problems between the Genovese family (working with the Luchese family) and the Gambino family when John Gotti seized control following the December 1985 assassination of Gambino boss Paul Castellano.

We'd always believed that Gigante was in on several additional hits ordered by Gaspipe against the Gambino family, though after researching this story, it seems more likely that Gigante and Casso together carried out only the DeCicco plot, then worked separately after that, with the Lucheses focusing on the Gambino family and the Genovese family (less successfully) concentrating on John and Gene Gotti.

As for Gotti, he suspected both families had been working against him -- and had taken action.

It's strange though -- two high-profile Gambinos slain after DeCicco both were believed to be involved in the Castellano hit (which had gone off without commission approval, supposedly the reason why "The Chin" was so angry). But both men also were considered to be involved in an attempt on Gaspipe's life.

There are reasons to believe the Luchese and Genovese families continued working together -- but the details of each hit seem to suggest it was mostly the Lucheses out in front doing the plotting and killing.

Casso certainly had strong motives of his own for killing Gambino family members.

Five months after the DeCicco bombing, on September 14, 1986, a carload of associates and/or members of the Gambino family attempted to assassinate Gaspipe as he ate an ice cream cone while sitting his his front seat. Although wounded, Casso survived. Once Gaspipe recovered, he did what any Mafia boss in his position would likely do: he sought revenge. Using his mob cops he got hold of the only man he could identify from the shooting, James Hydell, who Gaspipe then tortured before killing.

Some five years after the DeCicco hit, in November, 1990.Edward Lino, a Gambino family captain, was murdered by the so-called Mafia cops, Louis J. Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, on Gaspipe's orders. Lino, described as "a dapper and respected legend in the mob" as well as "a tough Gambino family soldier who had played a role in the killing of Paul Castellano, the family's don, in 1985," was also known to be a shooter. This is not a guy you'd want to fuck with -- which may be why Casso chose to use his "mob cops" to take out the proven Mafia shooter.

Several months later, on April 13, 1991, Gambino soldier Bartholomew "Bobby" Boriello was shot dead outside his Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, home on Bay 29th Street. A trusted Gotti aide, Boriello had once chauffeured the Dapper Godfather around New York City (Boriello also drove Gotti’s son, Junior).

Casso gave the order. Information on Boriello furnished by Eppolito and Caracappa was provided to the shooter, Luchese captain Frank "Big Frank" Lastorino, who shot Boriello twice in the head and five times in the torso. Boriello died in the street beside his 1991 Lincoln Towncar while his wife, Susan, and their two young children were inside the house.

Boriello had been under investigation by multiple federal agencies at the time and was believed to have been running a cocaine trafficking ring. Borriello also was named as a proficient shooter who may have been involved in the Castellano hit as well, based on the testimony of Gambino informant Dominick LoFaro, who flipped after his 1984 arrest in upstate New York on heroin charges, which could have sent him to prison for 20 years, Time reported.

When Gotti heard about Boriello's murder, he was furious -- and had suspected the Genovese family of taking out his former driver.

Sammy the Bull Gravano, based on depositions he gave the government when he became a co-operating witness, detailed how Gambino family bosses had a sit-down with the Genovese family, demanding the murder of West Side associate Preston Geritano. The Gambinos thought, mistakenly, that he'd been behind Boriello’s murder.

Then in 2004, Geritano was slain -- however by then it had nothing to do with Gotti or the Gambinos. His murderer was his own brother-in-law, Andrew Gargiulo, a successful bookmaker who was identified by several law enforcement officials as a soldier in the Genovese crime family. Gargiulo had used a hunting knife to stab Geritano, 57, after the two started arguing around 2 p.m. inside Brooklyn's Amici restaurant on Fort Hamilton Parkway. The disagreement spilled outside and turned into a brawl during which Gargiulo stabbed his brother-in-law twice in the torso.

Geritano, described as an associate in the Genovese crime family, was once a longshoreman. He also had been arrested on cargo theft charges and was also involved in gambling and loansharking. He was pronounced dead at 2:45 p.m. at Lutheran Medical Center.

A New York Times article described Geritano as a former "mob star" who in 1991 came under scrutiny in the slaying of Borriello. Police investigators eventually concluded he had no role in the killing.

Now we turn to the tape recordings of the Genovese family's New Jersey boss, Louis "Bobby" Manna.

Manna was jailed for three years in the 1970s for refusing to answer questions about organized crime, but his goose was cooked in June, 1989, when he was convicted of ordering the murder of New York businessman Irwin Schiff and of plotting the murder of then-Gambino boss John Gotti, as well as Gotti’s brother, Gene. Manna had been indicted along with Martin Casella and Richard "Bocci" DeSciscio.

The plot against John Gotti arose in a Sept. 21 in a conversation among Manna, Casella and another man. The plan was to attack Gotti near a club he frequented in Ozone Park, Queens. ''Wear a disguise,'' Manna said. ''It's an open place.''

The FBI subsequently notified Gotti of the plot. According to an Oct. 9 transcript, the Genovese mobsters learned of the warning -- but wanted the two Gottis dead so badly, they continued plotting.

"Hey, John Gotti knows,'' Casella said on Oct. 9.

An unidentified man responded, ''John Gotti knows we. . . .''

''That we ordered it?'' another man said.

The plotting continued. On Jan. 10, Manna referenced ''a big hit, John Gotti,'' and then apparently discussed the selection of gunman.

Two days later, in a conversation between Manna and James Napoli, Manna said: ''Gene Gotti's dead.''

''When are you gonna hit him?'' Napoli asked.

''Gene Gotti's dead,'' Manna repeated.

''We're gonna be paying for this, you know, for the rest of our lives,'' Napoli said.

John Gotti was doing some plotting of his own. His plan was to murder the Chin and put Genovese capo and longtime friend Alfonso "Allie Shades" Malangone in the big seat. This is based on an FBI summary of tape recorded remarks made by Genovese capo Alan "Baldie" Lonqo during a three-year investigation of the Genovese family.

"John Gotti was taking over. (Be)cause our friend (Malangone) grew up with him, we could make a deal. He (Chin) was dead," Longo said, adding that the scheme collapsed when Gaspipe declined to take part. Why would he have done anything to strengthen his arch enemy's position?

"If Gaspipe could have been talked into killing our friend, you know who would have been our boss, Alley Shades … He was always up John's ass," said Longo, who was Malangone's bodyguard and chauffeur in 1988, when the plotting and counter-plotting was in full swing.

Considering all the plotting and murdering going on back in the Gotti years, we wonder if it's even really news that "The Chin" wanted Massino dead....

So, was Galante ever the Bonnano boss or not? I've seen it both ways, that Rusty was the boss, in the can most of his life, and that Galante was killed because he coveted the position. But other sources say that Galante WAS the boss, and that he was killed because he wanted to be a boss of bosses and was creating his Sicilian family with a family. There is a famous Time mag cover story about the Mafia from 1977, called "Big, Bad and Booming" and if I recall, it says that Galante was the boss. Wasn't Galante in the can for an extended period of time, and not out a whole long time before he was whacked? That story about him uprooting Costello's head stone is hilarious. I wonder if that's really true.

I don't know, but maybe Galante was given such respect he carried himself like a boss without ever getting the official title. I'm also curious about the Gotti leadership after Sr went to prison. There's an NY times article entitled GONE FATHER that says the other families made Gotti step down and remove his son as acting boss or there would be bloodshed. That's the article that crowns little Nicky as boss. But then I think that conflicts some of DeLeonardo's testimony. Did Jr then become acting boss again? Even when Peter Gotti was no longer boss is a bit murky. DePalma referred to Squiteri as 'One' and that he was the boss in 2002. In fact, thinking about it, Cefalu could have been boss way before it was reported in 2011 and maybe he isn't even the boss now. Gambinos definitely have learned from the Genovese over the last 20 years!

See this story: http://www.cosanostranews.com/2013/08/joe-massino-last-godfather-first-rat.html

"The former Prime Minister of the Underworld had not even been dead a year when Galante, reputedly an old nemesis of his, committed would could have been a symbolic act of revenge, as well as a clear alert that he was on the street and taking no prisoners.

"On January 25, 1974, loyal Galante henchmen fixed dynamite around the front door of a mausoleum; the explosion blew the bronze doors off the last resting place of Frank Costello."

I think the guy with Chin in the pic at the top is his brother Father Louis Gigante. I think it was proven that Galante's death was a Commission hit because in the Commission Case there was testimony that Persico voted to spare him.

But there was a lot wrong with the Commission case -- Salerno wasn't boss, Christy Tick probably didn't belong in it... The Gambinos were the most immediate partners on the three capo takedown, they saw O'Neill afterward. I hear different things. Massino and Rastelli weren't widely liked, but it was really the Zips who decided both Lilo and then Sonny Red had to go more than anything else.....

Ed, I think we been hood winked with the commission case. That was all about Rudy making his bones. Like you said, fat tony wasn't the boss. Big Paul got killed before trial and the bonnanos weren't part of the commission trial. So.... That's what, three bosses out of five? Also, there is something about tic that really bugs me. As you posted last year and this is what got me into your site, tic was released. I have been trying to research this but I just don't have time. But I think part of it was that he wasn't as culpable as the other defendants. What the hell?!? You're either culpable or you ain't! It's like being pregnant! Ed, you gotta find out where he is now and if he's still in the game and if not, how does he live? Is he part of the family? Do the rank and file even know who the hell he is anymore?

Proper pronounciation of LILO " Lee-loh" not "Lee-Low", you forgot to mention that John Gotti never took revenge for any of those murders, even after he found out that the Luchesse family committed them, you also did not mention that Geritano was never harmed and never left Brooklyn for many years that him, along with his nephew were suspected of committing the Borielo murder, until Gas Flipped.Bobby Lino " Capable Shooter" why did he ask his cousin Frankie Lino to send Tommy Karate to Murder, John Gotti childhood friend and longtime informant Willy Johnson, if he was as capable as you said, he would of done the shooting.My point, John Gotti was a Mut and scared of Gas, and the Chin, he never retaliated because he knew they would continue to shoot back, the castellano murder he was aware that no one would retaliate.Joe Massino, well just look what his gang was made of, if no one figured it out yet, they were all JerK @FF's and punks, one his mother Payed LILO to make him, Vitale was a Cop before he got made, shelaca head once beat up a building with a bas ball bat instead of the Jewish guy who plunked him, now he lives in a place were he still tells people that he was a Captain in the Bonanno Family, Massino himself was derelict who once threw his parents out of the house they rented from him, Frankie Lino was a rapist addicted to Crack Cocaine.After all mentioned with a lot of details left out, my oppinion is, that they were not Cosa Nostra, just a bunch of punks.

Just to clear a few things up there was a Bonanno on the commission his name was Bruno and he got 40 years. Granted he gave them back 20 of it but he was on the case. And as far as Robert Lino u will never find a more stand up man then him I don't know to many guys who take 27 years on a plea also we know the story about Joey mooks demecio mom buying his button old news he was a jerkoff everyone abused him I was there to witness him getting abused by a guy who wasn't even made so as the story goes the demise of the bonanno family started with that fat RAT Massino and all those free holes money guys he had around him like the fat jerkoff Frankie coppa junkie Frankie Lino who was supposed to go with the 3 captains but managed to get out of the room if 6 of us. Went out to eat and we all put a hundred dollars on the table he would take the cash pay with his credit card then give the credit card bill at the end of the month to one of his guys to pay. Always remember this real men do real things. And in th end it all boils down to how u want ur name to be remembered guys like Frankie Lino and Dominic C and Richie salack head Joey demecio they no longer have there names. I was once sitting with joe chilli and he explained that the reason theses guys were around was because of the money they brought to the table. There's guys who do. And then there's the guys that just bring bags of money until they get caught and then u see the difference it's flip city for them then they want to write books and talk tough on th computer. That's enough for today. Peace Ed.

I couldn't believe Christy Tick got out.... but at his age, good for him. We can only speculate as to why. His lawyers were filing appeals constantly. May have been compassionate release..... the Feds knew he was a big shot mobster, they probably thought even if he hadn't truly been guilty in Commission Case he still deserved the time for whatever their informants had told them etc. Can speculate forever on this .... guys dying get out on compassionate and live 20 years, the Fed's don't like it but they made an exception for Christy Tick....

Gotti must've been behind the initial shooting of Gaspipe while eating his ice cream. Timing would suggest.... But no he didn't really start killing people to retaliate....seems he didnt know who the shooters were at least in BB case. Geritano didn't do it.... seems Gotti did lots of backroom political wrangling that didn't work out.... and he thought the Chin was his Barzini ... didn't seem to consider Gaspipe was against him, but there was the attempt on Casso's life which I believe Quack Quack was implicated in.....Lastorino was later part of plot to kill Stevie Crea.... Gaspipe ran those hits through his mob cops, who knows if anyone else knew what his strategy was....

Gotti seemed to be a lot quicker to kill his own guys than guys in other families. All the murders he was convicted of were his own guys.....Meanwhile Nicky Corozzo didn't blink at going toe to toe with Gaspipe (DiDonato book).... lot of interesting stuff we don't know, between the lines....

Here's my take on Gotti. He was a like bad ass Sergeant who got promoted to a friggin' General over night. What I mean by that, is if you really think about what he pulled off in killing Castellano, it's unbelievable. That he could rally the other rank and file around him, and lure them into casting their lot with him (at the risk of torture and death), that he could devise a scheme like he did, with any many moving parts and participants, and PULL IT OFF is just about the greatest rogue accomplishment in mob history. That's why I say he was like a bad ass sergeant. He had balls, and a sense of recklessness that made him charismatic to the other hoodlums in the family, and lent itself to a high stakes take down like killing Paul.

BUT...to run any enterprise, esp one as huge as the damn Gambino Crime Family, you have to have an entirely different skill set. You're a General now. You're sitting down the cabinet. You're sitting down with Generals from other branches and smoothing out differences. You're figuring out how do shit like invade Iraq, and move a few hundred thousand troops and millions of dollars of equipment around the world in a week. You're not a Sergeant on the ground kicking in doors and effin' people up, getting cool tats and hitting on chics with your buddies in the bar anymore. You're not farting with the rest of the enlisteds in the locker room. Gotti WAS NOT EQUIPPED TO BE A BOSS. No way, no how. He didn't have the intelligence, the management skills, and the sense of personal responsibility to keep his own house in order. His ego was so massive that it swallowed up any good qualities he may have had. Also, he could not escape the street mentality---no boss can be hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt because of his gambling issues.

This to me is why Gotti as overexposed as he is, is endlessly fascinating to me. He was so damn capable in some ways and so irredeemably terrible in others.

Yeah, I think now we're getting into a really interesting area...when you have a split. One guy has the title and is the boss on paper. But everyone follows another guy with more perceived balls and power, and just sort of acts like they aren't. You see what I'm trying to say? I'm not even referring to acting boss or street boss. I mean everyone just ignores the guy rotting in the can even if they don't admit it because they can't.

It's a bit of an insight to why these guy inevitably fail and get caught, surely no one who is level headed would think that was good move and in reality it was a pretty pointless thing to do. I thought being the best boss/wiseguy possible was to live the life like a game of chess, be a tactician and stay low key. It amazes me the recognition that Gotti gets when in reality he did everything he wasn't supposed to and ignored the warnings.

Wasn't Paul going to kill Gotti? And couldn't Paul have ordered a hit on Gotti from the can? The ego part, I totally agree with you on. I was always under the impression that Gotti hit Paul in large part because Pail was going to kill him once Della Croce died, and John moved pretty quick after that, didn't he? Again though, this goes back to my previous post about, we all read the same accounts of these things, and who knows if what we are reading is really true?

Like Gambino, right? Isn't he really the gold standard as far as a smart, cunning boss? After all, his wife offered surveiling agents lemonade...it's hard to muster up true hate for someone when they treat you well and courteously. Something a gutterpunk street rat like John Gotti could never, ever, comprehend.

Yep exactly, he's probably the closest to the Don corleone fantasy that you can get. Nowadays you just seem to get street smart wiseguys or psychopathic murders. When you hear of phycologists calling mobsters sociopaths I genuinely don't believe that the true old school gangsters were, they were just ruthless.

In all fairness I've not really done much reading on castellano. You often here of him not being cut out for the mob or the big seat but there's got to be more to gambino selecting him as a successor just because they were related.

You know, I just found out that Carlo's brother married Paul's sister. But Paul and Carlo were cousins, as well as brothers in law. So, imagine the family ties here..... That says a lot of what we need to know about why Paul was boss.

Carlo apparently envisaged a more sophisticated future for the family and that's why he chose the racketeer over the traditional gangster. I think history proved him right, look what happened when a gangster took over from Paul. Sammy should have been boss. Smart, never caught on tape, could earn legitimately through enterprise as well as the more traditional aspects which earned respect on the streets. Maybe Sammy was more of a fit for boss than both Gotti AND Castellano.

What's interesting is that none of this is black and white. I always thought it would be a case of, for example, Lucchese's not going up against the Gambinos as they are more powerful and much bigger. Obviously not the case when each family has legitimate tough guys and sociopaths. Bonanno's book has a great section detailing a rift with Tommy Lucchese (a new boss) and Vito Genovese (underboss) on one side and Costello and Anastasia on the other..it came down to a commission hearing whether or not to kill Lucchese for conspiring against Anastasia...and according to Bonanno the decision came down to him. Lucchese kept quiet because he didn't want to claim self defence because he'd have to give up Vito as the source of his information that Anastasia was trying to kill him too. It's always portrayed as simply as "Genovese moved against Anastasia by plotting with Gambino to kill him" but there's so much more to it. I had no idea that Bonanno was so powerful but it seems like he might have been THE man in New York before Carlo built the Gambinos to their peak.

I don.t know much about the New york familys but from reading these articles and books and information from imformants and different theorys of the mafia these five families couldnt get along with each other in there own familys. The deceitfullness and Treachery among the familys in the inner crews is off the charts let alone towards other familys. These were and are American born gangsters who couldnt get along. Now with the Zips or Siggies running things who aren.t from America how can these two factions co exist when the American factions have just about destroyed themselves and could.nt follow mafia protocol from american Boss.s in the end. How and why would they take orders from boss.s over seas who rule here now is baffling to me. PHILLY

The question "was Carmine Galante ever Boss of the Bonanno's" Here is the answer, Galante was importing Zips from the old country at an alarming rate, and basically thru sheer numbers took over the Zip faction of the family, and was attempting to take over the whole Bonanno family as Galante also had other members jumping over to his faction. The Rastelli loyalists saw what was going on, let Rastelli know, and Rastelli sent Joe Massino to stand in for him with the commission, for permission to whack Galante. It was a very easy decision for the commission to make, as Galante had ordered the hits on a lot of Gambino guys that were carried out by his Zips, and the commission members were also not happy with Galante because he had Frank Costello's mausoleum blown up. The commission members sensed Galante wanted to be "the boss of bosses" when in reality he hadn't taken over the Bonanno family entirely. Ego, disrespect, greed, and not following protocol will get you whacked in the life. Galante did all 4 of those things.

Sil, great posts. Let me opine a bit...about bonnano...I have read his book and it's interesting but it's as self serving a tome I've ever read and I'm not sure we can really believe any of it, or at least not entirely. But your post exemplifies why this shit is so fascinating. This is politics at its most cynical core, totally divorced from any sort of humanitarian impulses. I have always said and I will always say that a president needs to have a sliver of mob boss in him. He has to know when to look an enemy in the eye and stick a knife in his stomach. Instead of teaching college kids this pussy liberal transvestite shit in political science, they oughtta teach a class in mafia politicking....and teach these weakling kids today how the world truly is and always will be.....after all what is Putin but a Russian gangster on steroids! What is Isis but a murderous band of street thugs?

Keep sharing your info, this is what makes this site the best on the web. As always kudos to Ed for the time effort and energy he puts into his baby.....

Johnny thanks.....can you follow up on a few things? One, is what the hell did galante have against Costello? And correct me if I'm wrong but I always had the idea that Costello was almost shelved after the Kefauver hearings? As long as I'm on the topic of Costello, there is a book that is must read for mob fans...believe it or not it's by tommy James the sixties singer who has more brilliant songs than nearly anyone....his record company was run by Mo Levy, and tommy had unique insight into mob figures like tommy eboli, Dom cirillio, and tony Salerno. Tommy says that levy was behind the shooting of Costello by gigante. Don't know if it's true but this is another example of how you learn a lot about the mob from surprising sources.

I think you're right. But I think that the nature of these guys is that there will be more than enough thugs to pull the enterprise back into the muck. Hey Sil, I would love to learn more about what happened to the mob scions who did ensure their kids weren't in the life. We all know lansky sent his boy to West Point and he became an officer. I thought I read that profaci sent his sons to West Point too? This to me is the great unwritten story of the mob...the wreckage visited upon the families. Look at Albert demeo's book....you can feel the angst on the pages. Rita gigante book isn't bad either....also I've posted this before but it's interesting how some last names keep popping up over the decades....the most obvious being bonventre which is bonnanos moms maiden name...

From what I've read and gathered it seems Paul was actually a very good boss in some ways but his major problem was disassociating himself from the hoodlums in the family and essentially just ignoring what he knew was a festering problem just hoping it would go away. Again....these bosses were in essence politicians who jokeyed using murder and their stories bear similarities to those of legit politicians....ignoring their base, losing touch with th rank and file, being seen as too greedy, etc, etc....only in the mob the penalty is not losing an election....its death.

Your right....but it's why they are "families" and not gangs. Each mafia family consists of cousins, brothers, nephews, etc. They are all related in some way. You will see groups of names like gotti, corrozo, persico, bonventre, the list goes on and on. The biggest difference between Jewish and Italian gangsters. The guys who sent their kids to college and legit world are very rare in my opinion. Reference the jaguar bug that busted tony ducks corolla. ...his driver, Sal avalino talked about this subject....

have you ever wondered what happened to the lineage of some of the real old timers? Like masseria and maranzano? Did they have male heirs who were in the life? What about Anastasia and genovese? I always wonder what happened to these families, if the sons and grandsons found mainstream success......

Yes I have. I can only assume they had many cousins and nephews and back then, maybe, not as many were as well known and documented.. no Ed or Capeci chasing down gangsters on social media Lol!!!!

It's amazing how if you look at these guys.....they are all connected via married or cousins or nephews etc. Even when Names aren't same they are somehow connected.

Which is in my opinion on why it started to unravel in the 90's. They started making too many earners who had no family connections other than being half italian (father's side) Sorry to be long winded....

Nah I love this stuff, your posts are great. Speaking of the half Italian thing, is that proven? I have read that several times but I have a hard time believing that. But you have a really good point and it's proven by the ndranghetta....they purposely draw their family ties closer and they have far far fewer pentiti than the Camorra or Mafia in Sicily..

But they followed the rules and sought Commission approval. Bruno got parole in the late 90s & Tick made it out at 90 so the parole board may have thought so too. Salerno wasn't actually charged with being the boss & in light of his attendance at commission meetings his guilt was all but assured. The Bonannos were severed from the case as they had a RICO case with the same players coming up & there were enough examples of top members of the 4 other families hating the idea of Bonanno re-admittance that there could have been aquitals & Rudy wouldn't chance it.

I agree. Gotti should never have been Boss. He didn't have the experience. Plus he fell in love with the camera. Sammy the Bull was disgusted when Gotti talked about, "his public'. In Cosa Nostra you shouldn't have public. You need to stay in the shadows like Carlo did.

Big Paul raised the percentage of money he got as tribute from those under him. I think it went from 10% to 15%. That ticked a lot of those guys off. Ironically the street guys felt like Paul had not earned the title since he was Carlo's relative. Then Gotti does the same thing in giving the title of the family to his son.

DOMINICK CICALE, A FORMER CAPO IN THE BONANNO CRIME FAMILY, ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS
In 1999, Bronx-based Dominick Cicale finished his second years-long bit and hooked up with Vincent “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano, then an up-and-coming member of the Bronx faction of the Bonanno crime family.

Initially he'd been closely affiliated with "Big Ernie" in the Genovese family.

Roy DeMeo was a ruthless killer -- not a nice guy, not a guy worthy of admiration in any way -- but in the context of Cosa Nostra he is an endlessly fascinating portrait of a mobster who had a great business sense.

Paulie Castellano didn't want to make Roy, but eventually was too greedy not to--Roy was bringing in too much cash to not notice, combined with a blood lust that enabled him to commit torture murders not common even for mobsters.
Roy had a crew of young wannabes, many of whom would eventually get their buttons, such as Gemini Twins Anthony Senter and Joey Testa, who hooked up with the Lucchese's after leaving Roy.

As reported, an FBI bug installed in the home of Gambino family soldier Angelo Ruggiero picked up an intriguing conversation between Angelo and Gene Gotti, a brother of John Gotti.

In the conversation, it is revealed Paul Castellano had put out a hit on DeMeo, but was having difficulty finding someone willing to do the job. Gene Gotti said his brother Joh…

Peter "Peter Pasta" Pellegrino, formerly of the Babylon, New York, restaurant known as Peter’s Italian Restaurant, really is -- or was -- a gangster.

The once-promising Bonanno member who appeared after the Kitchen Nightmares episode aired, now calls himself a brokester. And the Bonanno crime family, with which he was once affiliated has disowned him.

So has the rest of New York's Cosa Nostra, according to FBI documents and Peter Pasta himself.

But before all that he appeared on an episode of Kitchen Nightmares in which he acted very much like the mobster he allegedly was trying to become around the time of filming. (See Peter's Italian Restaurant menu here.)

Back then Peter Pasta was an up-and-coming Bonanno associate who "earned" $15 grand a week bookmaking.

He was considered a dangerous man. A truck hijacker and gun-runner, he was tied to two crime families (the Bonannos and Lucheses) and operated a swag-filled warehouse.

He was known for his nice gold watches and good suits. He also preferred driving around in a Mercedes.

In reality, his name was not Vincent Spinelli, and he was far from being a criminal; in fact, he was an NYPD officer working undercover. The operation lasted three years and led to 42 arrests (21 were reputed Bonanno mobsters, the rest presumably were Luchese members, plus assorted associates -- plus there was at least one grandmother who lived in a social club in The Bronx).

Anthony Colombo died on January 6 in San Diego of complications from diabetes.Anthony was Joseph Colombo's son.When Joseph Colombo learned a boss was planning to take out other New York bosses in order to take control of the Mafia's Commission, Colombo showed fealty to Carlo Gambino and Tommy Lucchese, two of the key targets of the plotting. As a reward for his loyalty, Colombo was then named boss of one of New York's Five Families -- the Profaci family, which was rechristened the Colombo family.I've been working on a story about Anthony but meanwhile I thought it appropriate to republish a previous story we did with Anthony, a Q&A about a book he'd recently written about his father's shooting at the second Italian-American unity day.We want to thank Anthony Jr. for assisting Cosa Nostra News in getting the interview; we offer him and the Colombo family our solemn condolences.Anthony Colombo recently took the time to answer some questions for the following …

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Peter "Peter Pasta" Pellegrino, formerly of the Babylon, New York, restaurant known as Peter’s Italian Restaurant, really is -- or was -- a gangster.

The once-promising Bonanno member who appeared after the Kitchen Nightmares episode aired, now calls himself a brokester. And the Bonanno crime family, with which he was once affiliated has disowned him.

So has the rest of New York's Cosa Nostra, according to FBI documents and Peter Pasta himself.

But before all that he appeared on an episode of Kitchen Nightmares in which he acted very much like the mobster he allegedly was trying to become around the time of filming. (See Peter's Italian Restaurant menu here.)

Back then Peter Pasta was an up-and-coming Bonanno associate who "earned" $15 grand a week bookmaking.

NOTE: We will update this -- again, we post it as it includes some questionable assertions. Let us know what you find correct or not, in the comments....We also hear that a friend of ours is sick -- we want to wish him well.... Get better, guy!
Many high-profile organized crime figures reportedly hail from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.

Many Bensonhurst wiseguys are gone today, dead, in prison or Witness Protection -- or in New Jersey.... Unless of course, they are in another part of Brooklyn or another borough or Long Island, or somewhere else (to cover all bases).

It's one of gangland's most high-profile, enigmatic hits -- and the identity of the killer has been debated for decades.

Thomas "Tommy Two-Guns" DeSimone killed a made member of the Mafia -- and for that, among other things, he was killed in what's been described as a classic setup. The truth is, we know very little about this murder, including who pulled the trigger. (Or fired up the chainsaw depending on who you believe). DeSimone, technically, disappeared, meaning there's zero evidence as to how he was killed; in fact, it can't be said with absolute certainty that he was killed.

Still, he was killed. Guys like him don't just disappear into thin air. They'd never leave New York because everything they want -- a certain lifestyle, basically -- is in New York and cannot be duplicated anywhere else.